


Findred Spirits

by ohmyfeferi



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Humanstuck, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-09 19:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3262061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyfeferi/pseuds/ohmyfeferi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At a university in Northeastern United States, Dave and Jade meet Feferi Peixes. When complications start to arise in their friend group, what will these friends do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Someone New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave and Jade go to class. Dave meets Feferi.

Your name is Jade Harley. It is 1:50pm and you have a class in ten minutes!!

You are sprinting across campus towards the science building with Dave Strider, a close friend of yours. You are both on your way to your intro to marine biology course, which fulfills your general education requirement for science. Even though you do not need to take it since you are majoring in astrophysics, marine biology has always interested you, plus you had some extra room on your schedule this semester. Dave is running slower than you, and he is lagging behind a good five or ten feet.

“HURRY UP, DAVE! We’ll be late!!” You shout back at him, the January wind whipping your puffs of breath back towards him. You let out a laugh as you run, dodging students and faculty, backpack bouncing on your shoulders. Dave lets out something between a pant and a groan as he picks up his pace to catch up with you.

“Jesus, Harley!” He shouts, his tone still fairly calm with just a hint of exhaustion. You ignore him, knowing that you will both be late if you don’t kick it into high gear. Finally, you see the sleek glass side of the science building. Students come and go through the revolving doors, and you spot a few familiar faces from your biology class. You enter the building with Dave, stopping briefly to check your schedule for the room number. 314B. East side of the building, up a few flights of stairs. It is 1:56pm. You can still make it on time if you hurry! You grab Dave’s wrist and start climbing the stairs, and he groans again.

Both of you make it to class with one minute to spare. You take the only two remaining seats in the class, on the far edge against the wall. There are no lefty desks left for Dave to sit in, you notice. You sit down and Dave sits behind you, trying to catch his breath. You turn around and smile triumphantly at him, and he smirks at you. Turning back around, you take out your pencil case to retrieve a green pen. You draw a small line on your ring finger to make sure you remember to get to this class earlier next time to snag Dave a lefty desk. You wonder what he is thinking about behind those sunglasses and his typical cool guy expression. You catch yourself smiling.

JADE: STOP WONDERING AND BE THE COOL GUY

You are now Dave, and you are looking around the room trying to figure out if you know anybody in this goddamn class besides Jade, not that it particularly matters. After all, you’ve been purposefully taking the same classes as her for years, and as long as she’s in your class you really don’t mind the rest. You’ve also been pretty head-over-fucking-heels for her for years, not that you’re counting.

She rummages in her pencil case and draws a line on her finger with a pen, and you smile to yourself. Her with her little reminders, you swear. As you scan the faces in the classroom, someone catches your eye. Or rather, two someones, a guy and a girl. They remind you of those theater masks, the comedy and tragedy ones. The guy looks miserable. There are bags under his eyes, he’s slouching hardcore, and he’s wearing a scowl that almost makes you cringe. The girl, on the other hand, has eyes that are lit up like a fucking christmas tree, her posture is straight, and she’s chatting enthusiastically with Mr. Tragedy. You can’t help but notice how much she reminds you of Jade. Her eyes wander over to your general direction, and you realize you’re staring at her. Shit. Thank god for sunglasses. As you fumble with your backpack, the professor finally stands and introduces herself, passes out the syllabus, and begins the class.

\---

An hour and a half later, Miss Comedy and Mr. Tragedy are the first ones out the door. You watch them leave, making a note to try and beat them out of class next time. Jade gathers her things and stands, and you follow her out of the class, giving the professor a small nod as you leave. You chat about how the class looks, what you think of the professor, and what you are going to do now.

“I saw a guy from my bio class! He’s pretty shy, though, so when I waved he looked pretty startled!” She says, twirling her finger in a loose strand of hair.

“Figures you’d know somebody, Harley,” You tease. She knows everybody at this fucking school.

“Well, I don’t know everybody! Who were those two people you were looking at before class started? Do you recognize them?” Shit. She fucking caught me. I can’t get anything past this girl.

“Nah, I just...I guess I just thought they looked interesting. I mean they were such opposites, you know?” She giggles.

“Dave you are so weird! But I see what you mean. The girl was so happy, and the guy just looked like he was going to kill somebody!”

“Yeah,” you say, “I named them Miss Comedy and Mr. Tragedy until further notice.” This makes her laugh, and your stomach does some freaky flipping shit that you can’t believe. Get a fucking grip, Strider.

“So what are you doing for the rest of your day?” She asks, coming down from her small burst of laughter.

“I’m done with classes. I’ll probably just go back to the dorm and chill, maybe jam, maybe do some homework. Actually fuck that, I’m gonna jam.”

“Lucky!! I have my chem class in an hour and I still have to print the syllabus! I wish all of my professors just handed it out.” Your conversation continues in that manner until you reach the point where your paths diverge. You agree to meet up later and play some video games, and then you part. You head towards the residential part of campus, and she heads to the computer labs to print.

A short walk and a few flights of stairs later, you’re back in your room. You take out your DJing equipment and start to loop some tracks that you’d been working on. Getting more and more into the beat, you forget how loud the volume is until there is a barely-audible knock on your door. Shit. You hope it isn’t one of your resident assistants telling you about a noise complaint. You take your headphones off, walk over to your door, and open it. Holy fuck.

“Hey! You were in my marine bio course today! Hehe, small world! Anyway, I live a few doors down and I just wanted to say that your music sounds reely coral!” The bright, happy face of Miss Comedy beams up at you, chatting away about how cool your music sounds. Or, coral, you guess. What’s up with that? Are you dreaming? She seems shorter than you remember from class. The top of her head is only up to your collarbone. She’s wearing a simple black sweater with a pink floral print and leggings, and she has gold bangles on both of her wrists. Her hair is long, at least down to the waist of her shorts, and it’s dark black. Her skin is also dark, and it looks to you like she is mixed race of some kind. Her eyes are dark brown. She’s also fucking gorgeous. In an objective sense, you mean...be chill, Strider.

“Oh...Yeah, hey. Section 6, right? For the course. And uh thanks, about the music.” You manage to say, trying to maintain your cool. What are the fucking odds? How is this happening? She gives you a polite smile and sticks her hand out.

“I’m Feferi,” she says, her bangles jingling as you shake her hand.

“Dave.” You say. She never really stops smiling, you notice, she just varies how wide she’s smiling. Her handshake is firm, too. Damn, this girl is stronger than she looks.

“Well, Dave, is is really nice to meet you! I’m sorry if this seems a little weird of me, I just wanted to tell you that I reely like this song! What band is it?”

“It’s nice to meet you, too. And I am the band. It is me.” She giggles at your phrasing, and then gets excited again.

“Whoah, really?! That’s so amazing! You sound like a professioneel!” You hand finds its way to the back of your head, like it usually does when you’re flust- embarrassed.

“Oh God, no, I’m not that good yet.” You say, trying to be modest.

“No, prawnestly, you sound amazing!” She peers past you into your room, “Do you have DJ equipment? That is SO COOL!” She is practically boiling over with enthusiasm, and as secretive as you usually are about your music, something about this girl is winning you over big time.

“Yeah, those are my turntables. You can see them, I mean, if you want to.”

“Oh my COD! Wow thank you!” You open the door wider so that she can come in, and you silently bless John (your roommate and best friend) for cleaning up the room while you were in class. You also bless John for not being here, since you really don’t want him to be teasing you about this. You sit down in front of your equipment, and Feferi stands next to you, looking at you with anticipation. She’s so hyped up you feel like you have an entire audience watching you. Jesus, this girl’s energy is infectious. You spin some sick beats for her as she stares at you in awe. Her expression reminds you of your older brother’s shitty anime girls. Except when she does it, it’s monumentally less shitty. You finish the song and take off your headphones.

“The base in that song was fincredible! And the melody was conchnestly so good!” She says.

“Yeah, it took me a long time to get the balance right, but once I did it was just...fuck yeah. You know some stuff about music, huh?”

“Oh, yeah, I play bass guitar! I’ve been playing for a while.” She said, running a finger along the turntables as she talked.

“Oh, cool!” You say. You’ve only met one other girl that plays bass. God damn it, another similarity between Feferi and Jade. You can’t get away from this train of thought, it just keeps running you over. “Wait, ok, I wasn’t gonna ask, but what’s up with the...are they fish puns?” You had thought the first one was just your head playing tricks on you, but “fincredible” had pushed that doubt aside. Then “conchnestly” took the doubt and fucking curb stomped it. She giggles at the question, like she’s used to it.

“I’m a marine biology major, and I love the sea! I started making them ironically,” Goddamn, this chick just keeps being cool, “but after a while I just couldn’t stop saying them! They are a little addictive after a while, you’d be surprised! Now I just make them subconchiously- Oh! There I go again!” You can’t help but let out a small laugh. Jesus christ, this girl is ridiculous.

“That’s exactly why I started wearing shades all the time,” you say, “They were a gift, and I started wearing them everywhere ironically, but now they’re a fucking part of my soul. All tangled up in there with my insane coolness.” She scoffs at you, and you raise an eyebrow. “What, you don’t think I have insane coolness levels?” You challenge.

“Who am I to say, I only just met you! You could be completely crayfish for all I know!” She winces a little and continues, “Ocray, that was NAUGHT my best so I’m shorey for that!” You roll your eyes, then realize she can’t see them. You lower your shades, roll your eyes at her, then put them back in their original position. She gasps.

“Holy ship! Your eyes! They’re…”

“Red. Yeah. I’m basically fucking albino.” You feel bad for cutting her off, but this topic of conversation has gotten old, especially after nineteen years of everybody gawking at your freaky rabbit eyes.

“They’re AMAZING! Can I sea them again? Oh cod unless it bothers you, then nevermind!” You take off your shades again and make solid eye contact with her. Her eyes are really pretty, and you feel like she’s searching you or something. Except, only your eyes. Like some sort of eye probe. Maybe she’s just an alien, you think to yourself. Eventually, she looks away, and you put your shades back on.

“Wow,” she breathes, “I’ve never seen anyfin like that beshore...Those shades aren’t all ironic, are they?”

“I’m starting to think you stalked me from class and came here just to ask me weirdly invasive questions without even knowing my last name,” you say in a teasing tone. You really don’t feel like talking about this with somebody you just met, but you don’t want to be rude. Hopefully she’ll get the message. She chuckles, so you think your playful jab is well received.

“Well, my last name is Peixes. What’s yours?”

“Strider.”

“SEARIOUSLY?”

“What?”

“That is such a typical cool guy name!” She smirks at you, then continues, “Whale, I should reely get going. I’m sorry if I bothered you at all…” She trails off.

“Oh, no, it’s cool. You’re cool. Uh, come back whenever. We can jam or study or something. And you can meet my friend Jade, too.”

“Was that the pretty one who sat in front of you in class today?”

“Yeah. That’s her.”

“I would LOVE to meet her! Can’t wait! We should exchange numbers so we can plan this!”

“Oh, uh, I actually usually use thing thing called Pesterchum, it’s this chat client thing, it’s cool if you don’t know what i-”

“NO WAY! YOU HAVE A PESTERCHUM?!” She says, cutting you off. You don’t even care.

“Haha, yeah. My user is turntechGodhead. It’s the best way to get in touch with me.”

“Mine is cuttlefishCuller! Do you have a piece of paper or somefin?” You go to your desk, get a post-it note, scribble your chumhandle on it, and hand it to her. She does the same with hers on a separate post-it.

“Cool,” you say. She smiles at you again and puts the piece of paper in her pocket.

“It was reely nice meeting you, Dave. Let’s hang out again soon, ocray? And bring Jade!”

“Yeah, sure thing. Whenever.” You walk her out, and before she leaves she gives you one last tiny wave. When you close the door, you immediately go to your computer and add her on pesterchum.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you now know two people in your marine bio class.


	2. Get Wrecked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave introduces Feferi and Jade. Eridan is a douche.

DAVE: BE FEFERI

You are now Feferi and you just met somebody really cool! You walk three doors down to your room, turning around to make sure you remember what room he is in. You think about his eyes again and how amazing they looked. For somebody so seemingly laid back, Dave Strider has incredibly piercing eyes. You swipe your ID card and enter your room, where Aradia, your roommate, is painting her nails. She is sitting on the floor on a mat, her legs folded under her neatly in a criss-cross position, and a nail file in her mouth. When she hears you come in, she perks up and pats the space next to her on the mat.

“Hey! You were gone a while! Did you tell our neighbor how rad his music is? Come here and tell me all about it!” She says, moving some hair out of her face. Aradia’s hair is beautiful but very voluminous, and gets in her face quite often. Long, unruly hair is one of the many things you two have in common. However, while your hair is more frizzy than poofy, hers is fuller and curly. She usually wears big headbands when she goes to class, or sometimes a head wrap. You sit down next to her on the mat, careful to avoid knocking over the bottles of dark red, white, and black nail polish.

“I did! His name is Dave, and the music we heard was something he wrote! Isn’t that amazing? He let me see his DJ equipment, too! It was so coral! We ended up talking about music a lot, so shorey for taking so long. He’s just reely...Cool! He wears these aviator shades and he has red eyes! I’m not even kidding!” Your excitement is definitely showing, but you know Aradia understands. You love meeting new people, especially ones that you share interests with! Plus, Dave was pretty attractive, at least in your opinion. Aradia gives you a knowing smile.

“Wow, he sounds really interesting. Did you get his phone number?”

“No, but I got his pesterchum!” You say, still buzzing. “Oh! I shoald add him!” You stand and go over to your desk, log in to your computer, and open pesterchum. Aradia resumes painting her nails. She has finished coating all of them in a deep red, and is starting to add little skulls and crossbones on each finger. You always admired how good Aradia is at painting nail designs. She does your nails fairly often, too.

When pesterchum opens, you see that Dave has already added you. You smile to yourself and accept the contact invite. Apparently, Dave is feeling “chummy” right now. You think about chatting him, but don’t want to push your luck. New friendships are tricky that way, you think to yourself. Instead, you exit the chat client and return to your place next to Aradia to continue your conversation. She smirks when you sit down.

“I had a feeling you weren’t done talking about our mysterious, coolguy neighbor,” she teases, finishing up the first skull. Her thumb is now significantly spookier.

“Oh shoosh! He was really nice to me! Plus, he said he would introduce me to another friend of his, too! Maybe we can all form a study group! He’s in my marine bio class,” you say.

“That sounds great! Maybe you can introduce me to him, too.” Aradia says as she paints. She's on her pointer finger now, and her eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as she draws two tiny crossbones.

“Yeah, it reely is great. You would like him, I think. He reminded me of you a little bit! Maybe it was all the red..." You are about to continue but Aradia cuts you off.

"Wait, Feferi, don't you have another class soon?"

"Oh ship!! I was supposed to meet Eridan at the student center so we could walk together!”

“You better get going, then,” Aradia says, and you stand up.

"I don't know what I would do without you, Aradia!" You bend down and give her a light hug as to avoid interrupting her nail painting. She smiles.

"I'm sure you'd be ok. Now get going!" You smile at her and grab your things, calling out a quick goodbye as you speed walk out the door, down the hall, and into the elevator.

After exiting the elevator, you practically fly out the door, the wind whipping your hair in your face. Ugh, perfect. You don’t have time to stop, so you keep walking, determined to at least get inside the student center before fixing your hair.

A short, windy walk later, you arrive at the student center, which is packed with people. Even with Eridan’s distinct look (you mean really, who could miss that hair! Or that scarf!), you can’t find him right away. Just as you are about to give up, you spot him off to the side, talking to Dave's pretty friend! You think he said her name was Jade. Eridan has backed her into a corner, and you catch what he says as you approach.

“Hey baby, wanna go study some...biology later?” He says, raising his eyebrows at the word "biology." He follows the line with an exaggerated wink. You groan. You sure know how to pick your friends, you think. What a douchecanoe.

“I’m an astrophysics major,” Jade fires back. She seems uncomfortable, but also pissed off. You like how firey she is.

“That makes sense, because your body is out of this world,” Eridan says, raising his eyebrows at her and giving her a quick up and down look. Jade sees you standing behind him, and her eyes scream for help.

You are more than happy to oblige. You grab his arm roughly, pulling him away from Jade, and start dragging him in the direction of your class. You look back at Jade quickly to mouth an apology, and she gives you a thankful smile. Oh no, she’s prettier than you remembered.

“Fef! C’mon, this is so not cool! I was chattin’ up that pretty little miss and you just had to mess it up! I was gonna get her num- OW!” You tighten your grip on his bicep.

“Eridan, you had her cornered! Betides, we need to get to class, and if we are late because of you I swear to cod…”

“Ok, ok. Yeesh. Can’t a guy do anythin’ without gettin’ yelled at?” He continues to whine, but you ignore him and let go of his arm, walking a little bit faster. By the time you reach class, he finally stops whining and you both sit down in adjacent desks. You’re a few minutes early, as you usually are.

“See Fef we weren’t even late.”

“Ok, ok,” you say, shoving him a little, “but seariously, you have got to stop doing that.”

“Doin’ what?” He asks. You let out an exasperated sigh.

“You need stop going up to girls and pressuring them, dummy!”

“I wasn’t pressuring her, I just wanted a date is all! C’mon, Fef, you know I’m not tryin’ to get into her pants.” He’s got you there.

“Did you even know her name?”

“A course I did, who do you think I fuckin’ am? Her name’s Harley.”

“That’s just her last name! You only know that because of attendance in class earlier.”

“Shut up!” He is about to say something else, but your professor enters the room. Thank cod. You really don’t feel like arguing with Eridan right now. Lately, that’s been all your conversations are. You bicker and bicker, and nothing ever comes of it. You’re both too stubborn to let up, and it’s always been that way.

As much as he infuriates you sometimes, there’s no way you would ever stop being his friend. You’ve known Eridan since you were a little kid. His dad used to work very closely with your mom. Your mother runs a baking empire, and Eridan’s father manages most of the companies finances. While the adults talked about business expenses and employee wages, little you and little Eridan would play prince and princess in the employee break room. He was your knight sometimes, too, but he was always better at being a prince. When you would fight back then, it was always about who got to kill the dragon. Usually, you just let him do it. Arguing with him was always a chore, and it never really got any easier. You let out a sigh and tune back in to what the professor is saying.

“So, if you do your homework and come to class most of the time, you should be able to do fine. If you miss more than three classes, I’ll fail you. Seriously, don’t test me.” It’s the standard speech about attendance. This professor seems a bit stricter than your marine biology one. You jot a note in your planner to make sure you don’t skip this class for no reason.

Even though you try to pay attention, your thoughts are soon elsewhere. Before you even register it, you’re thinking about that smile Jade gave you again. You mentally berate yourself for not talking to her, or at least getting her pesterchum. It was a perfect opportunity, and you missed it. At least when Dave introduces the two of you you’ll have something to talk to her about. Both of them are so attractive. Cod damn it.

\---

When you get out of class, Eridan walks quickly away from you. You sigh. You’ll deal with him later, you honestly don’t want to start anything right now. Sometimes he really saps your energy. On the way back to you dorm, you check your phone. You have a new message from Dave!

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering cuttlefishCuller [CC] \--  
TG: hey feferi   
TG: its dave   
TG: i guess you already knew that so nevermind   
TG: anyway jade and i were gonna chill in my room  
TG: maybe play some smash   
TG: if you want to come thatd be pretty fuckin rad  
CC: T)(at sounds really coral! I'm on my way back from class now, so I'll be over in ten minutes!!  
TG: whoah your quirk thats pretty cool with the hs   
CC: )(e)(e! T)(anks!!  
CC: Anywave, I'll be over soon! I can't wait to formally meet Jade!!  
TG: k see you soon  
CC: Bye!!!  
\-- cuttlefishCuller [CC] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] \--

You enter your building, rubbing your hands together to get the feeling back in your fingers. You had left your gloves in your room in your rush, and you really regretted it now.

You go up the elevator to the fourth floor and make your way to Dave's room. You can feel your cheeks warming up again. When you knock on his door, you hear some cursing from him.

“Pillar of light, bitch!” Yells a voice that could only be Jade. You giggle. Just after that, the faint music of Super Smash Bros is paused, and you hear Dave shuffling to the door.

He opens the door and gives you a small, crooked smile. You return the gesture and step inside.

“Welcome to the coolest dorm room on campus,” he says, returning to his spot next to Jade and picking up his controller again. You roll your eyes. Jade sees you walk in and you see her eyebrows furrow.

“Wait, weren’t you that girl who got that creep away from me earlier?”

“Jade c’mon I need to kick your ass to redeem Link’s honor,” Dave gripes. Jade looks away from you to scold Dave.

“Shush! Seriously, though, that was you, right?” Her attention is back on you.

“Yeah, that was me. I am reely shorey aboat that by the way! Eridan can be such a douche sometimes, but he is a reelly nice guy way deep down. He’s my best frond!”

“Well, if you say so. Anyway, I never got to really thank you. So, thank you! I can usually get those types of guys to fuck off, but he was being really persistent.” She still seems miffed despite your attempts at placating her. 

“You’re whalecome! It was no trouble, reely! Sometimes I just need to keep him in line.” Jade giggles at your sentence, lightening the mood.

“Oh my gosh, Dave told me you made fish puns, but in person it’s just so much better! Or...betta!” She laughs at her own joke, and it’s adorable. How does she do that? She continues, “If there’s anything I can do to thank you for real, though, just let me know!”

Your mind immediately goes directly into the gutter. Jeez, Feferi, you need to get a grip. You’re worse than Eridan in your head.

“If I think of somefin I’ll let you know! After this round can I play?”

“Well I don’t know, I mean, if we ever fucking unpause the game,” Dave says, his voice full of impatience and teasing.

“Ok, that’s it. You’re about to get wrecked, Dave. Say your prayers,” Jade says.

“Oh it’s fucking on like Donkey Kong, Harley.” Dave unpauses the game, and the two immediately started fighting. Jade is playing Palutena, and she’s using her counter really well, you notice. Dave is indeed getting wrecked. You silently cheer for Jade.

“FUCK!!” Jade exclaims. Uh oh, Dave landed some nice hits.

“Eat my sword!” Dave shouts triumphantly. Palutena flies off of the screen with a triumphant HAYA from Link.

“Remember how I said you were going to get wrecked? You are going to get MORE wrecked.” Jade respawns and immediately hits Dave with another pillar of light.

“BULLSHIT I DODGED THAT,” he yells. Jade gives no reply, and they keep sparring. Eventually, Jade finally wins with a combination counter and up-A attack. You clap, and she turns around to smile at you.

“Ok. Let’s fucking go. Feferi, get in this.” Dave hands you a controller and you pick your usual character, Greninja, and change the character color to pink.

“Ok, I’m ready!” You say.

“So am I!” Jade chimes in.

“Prepare to die, Jade,” Dave says. You smile and brace yourself. You’re about to be caught in the middle of an epic battle.

You have a feeling it’s going to be a long game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to know what you think! Leave me a kudos or a comment!

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started as a joke in a Skype conversation, and then I started caring a lot. Now it's happening. Special thanks to Luke for helping me brainstorm ideas!! I'll try to update once a week, it honestly depends on what sort of response I get! I hope you all enjoy reading.


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